The present invention relates generally to modular furniture and, more particularly, to a system and method for forming an easily erectable modular business cubicle.
Furnishing a business with traditional cubicles can be expensive and can takes days or weeks to complete. One solution is to utilize modular kits to erect cubicles using frames, fasteners, panels, connectors. One of these modular cubicle solutions, sold under the tradename, “Sunline” provides a modular business cubicle that uses connecting rails to assemble. As shown in FIGS. 1-3, panels P1 and P2 are connected together using connector rails CR that have the form of back-to-back “C-shaped” rails that receive corresponding elements on the side edges of the panels P1/P2 in order to couple. As shown most clearly in FIGS. 4-5, these connector rails CR can be cut to any length and, in these figures, are shown coupled to a single panel P1, and are ready to receive a second panel P2 in a “stack” orientation to form a vertical wall. As can be appreciated, using a plurality of these panels P1/P2 and connector rails CR, a modular cubicle can be assembled.
However, reconfiguring a cubicle using this prior art system requires new connector rails CR since these connector rails CR are defined in specific sizes and shapes; for example, in order to connect two panels side by side at a 90° angle between the two panels, requires having a particular “L-shaped” post connector rail; or if four cubicles were being connecting together, a four-way rail connector would need to be used; similarly, if a three-way connection of panels were needed, a three-way rail connector would need to be used. And if the height of the cubicle were to be increased, another level or tier of panels could only be installed if the vertical connector rails CR were swapped out for longer connector rails CR to accommodate the additional tier of panels.
Furthermore, the following patent references are related to erecting partition walls: U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0023391 (Nymark); 2018/0128011 (Preston); U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,146 (Boon); U.S. Pat. No. 7,051,482 (MacDonald, et al); and building panels: U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,779 (Tracy); U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,091 (Auer); and connectors: U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,177 (Wood); U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,830 (van den Broek); and tongue/groove configurations: U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,333 (Jones); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,535 (Maupin).
However, while the prior device described above and the aforementioned patent references are suitable for their intended purposes, they nevertheless leave something to be desired from the standpoint of providing a more convenient system and method for forming a cubicle out of panels without the need to use separate connectors and tools. Thus, the subject invention addresses that need.
All references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.